Orange glut puts squeeze on growers

The future of Narromine's citrus industry in central western New South Wales is in doubt as orange growers experience their worst season in decades.

The high Australian dollar has crippled the export market, causing a glut of navel oranges domestically, with prices so low many growers are not picking.

The chairman of the Narromine Citrus Packers Co-operative, Trevor Roberts, says the shed is basically closed and 12 staff have been put off because fruit is being left on trees.

The second generation citrus grower says it is the worst season he has experienced in 40 years in the industry.

"We've put off most of our staff at this stage because we just haven't got work for them, so it's a big flow-on effect," he said.

"It means we don't have freight going out to the Sydney and Brisbane markets so it does snowball quite heavily onto a lot of people.

"We're just hoping that it does pick up down the track but at the moment it costs you money to pick them and send them to market."

Mr Roberts say he is contemplating pulling out his 40 hectares of navel and valencia trees.

"You just don't understand where your future is going to be with citrus," he said.

"We're in a quandary as to which way we go, whether we try to keep going or whether we pull out altogether with citrus.

"If our dollar became more competitive in the world then yes we would definitely be back in with a go but everything's so unstable nowadays - you've got a lot of costs, a lot of people involved in citrus.

"Other things like wheat growing and sheep where you don't rely so heavily on costs and labour looks very attractive."